A debt financing of $30 million has been obtained for ShopUp, a B2B e-commerce platform located in Bangladesh.
Lendable, a UK-based debt provider, is providing US $20 million of the finance, while The City Bank, a Bangladeshi commercial bank, is contributing US $10 million. Lendable’s first investment in South Asia is this one.
The additional funding will be used by ShopUp to assist its growth initiatives, improve supply chain management, and contribute to addressing Bangladesh’s food waste issue.
The company has so far attracted more than $200 million in the financing, including US $75 million from a series B round that was oversubscribed and was headed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures in September 2021.
ShopUp, which was established in 2016, offers mobile-based retail services to mom-and-pop shops, which are essential to the nation’s distribution of food and home goods. The business estimates that 4.5 million of these modest retailers account for 98% of Bangladesh’s overall consumption.
Twenty million people in Bangladesh are presently assisted by Mokam, ShopUp’s marketplace app, in obtaining food and other necessities through its network of stores. The business also runs RedX, a last-mile logistics service.
